Tag: interview

Capstone #2

jblachman29 on

I am now finished with my Capstone interview, which means I am 1/3 done with the Capstone era. I thought of interviewing a few people who specialized in or studied sunsets/sunrises and weather, and soon enough I chose someone who worked at a University, plus they wrote an article I liked.

The first part of the interview process was finding a person and setting it up. After I chose the expert, which was someone named Stephen Cordfidi, I asked Ms. Boyer to email them, requesting the interview. My email looked something like this:

Hello, my name is Jane, and I am a 5th grader at Heathcote Elementary school in Scarsdale, NY. 

I have a simple request. In school, I am studying for a very important project before Middle School. My topic is Sunsets & Sunrises. I wanted to ask if I could possibly interview you for my project? Interviewing someone will help me get the best information for my presentation. 

I understand if you might be busy, -this isn’t a forceful message- though I would appreciate it if we can plan something in an email, phone call, or zoom. 

Thank you, Jane 

After two days, I was excited to find out that they had responded to the email Ms. Boyer sent. We then needed to plan a day to do the interview, which was a struggle.

It was on a Monday that I received their response to the email, and on the following Wednesday, I would have surgery and probably wouldn’t be in school until the next Monday, which was the day Interviewing was due. I was planning on doing my interview the next Monday, (sadly) but thankfully it was changed to the next day, (Tuesday) after that!

Another thing you need to do before an interview is write down interview questions. I had already written mine with my research, though I looked over it to make sure they were good questions. Writing the questions was my favorite part because I had many in mind.

My least favorite part was writing down notes while I was doing the interview. Since Mr. Cordfidi was an advanced expert, he answered the questions in a bit of a confusing, or should I say more advanced way, so it was hard to write down. Also, he spoke really fast and I didn’t have time to get through all the details. I still liked interviewing him though, it helped me get more information about my topic in an ‘advanced’ way.

Keep you posted,

Jane

Immigration Presentation Reflection

jblachman29 on

My class and I had a big project to do that included interviewing someone who immigrated to America and then making a story in a slideshow about it. This project was very fun and I learned a lot more about the person who I interviewed, which was my dad. I interviewed my dad because he was one of the only people I knew who immigrated to America that I could contact.

I learned that many people from all around the world immigrate to America, probably more than I expected. From seeing my classmate’s presentations and learning about it, many people came to America from all around the world for better life and learning opportunities.

First I had to ask my dad many questions like an interviewer would, and then take notes. After I took notes I put them into a script, then used them as inspiration for my slide show. Instead of using We-Video for my story like most of my other presentations, I used another platform called Adobe. I like Adobe better because the transitions and slides are better, and it is easier. It also unblurred photos, which was very helpful. I still like Adobe better, but there were some problems with it too.

Something that surprised me was that when I was in the process of making my slideshow, Adobe had many unexpected problems. The photos that I uploaded were glitching, my slideshow lagged and crashed my Chromebook more than once. In the end, I ended up liking Adobe less than I did at the start.

Overall I loved making the Immigration project and my slideshow ended up being a clean, thorough, and detailed story about my dad’s immigration journey. I think this very fun, even though it was difficult at one point.

Here is my final presentation. Bye!